For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
Cell: (317) 201-0729
E-mail: LindaKMansfield@cs.com
Summerton Qualifies Fifth;
Romancini Qualifies 14th
For RLR/Andersen Racing
Saturday at Long Beach
LONG BEACH, Calif., April 18 - RLR/Andersen Racing's two Firestone Indy
Lights drivers, Jonathan Summerton and Mario Romancini, qualified fifth and
14th, respectively on Saturday morning in preparation for Sunday's 45-lap
Firestone Indy Lights race on the 1.968-mile, 11-turn Long Beach street circuit.
Under a new qualifying format instituted this year for street courses, the
25-car field was randomly split into two groups for qualifying. The fastest
driver won the pole and the fastest driver from the other group earned the
second starting spot. The rest of the grid was formed with the cars from the
polesitter's group, which was the second group on Saturday, taking the
inside positions, and the cars from the first group taking the outside positions
based on their group rankings, not by the field's combined times.
Summerton, of Kissimmee, Fla., posted the third-fastest lap of the second
group on the seventh of 11 laps he ran in qualifying with a 1:15.8578 (93.396
miles per hour), despite an oversteering condition. He wasn't able to pit
for new Firestone Firehawk tires due to a late yellow in that group when
Gustavo Yacaman hit a tire wall in Turn 9, so that ended up being his fastest
lap in the session. It was just 0.5883 of a second off polesitter J.R.
Hildebrand's automatic new track record, since this is the series' first
appearance here.
Andersen Racing, Allied Interior Products and Lafarge North America sponsor
Summerton's No. 9.
Romancini, of São Paulo, Brazil, was seventh in the first group so his No.
5 will start 14th in the race with a qualifying time of 1:15.9503 (93.282
mph). Hampered by traffic, his fastest lap was the 14th of 15 he turned in
his Dallara, which is sponsored by Andersen Racing, Revita Recycling, Win
Brazil Marketing, Allied Interior Products and Lafarge North America.
The new qualifying format helped Summerton but hurt Romancini. If the grid
was set traditionally with combined times compared, Summerton would start
eighth and Romancini would start tenth.
In earlier action, the highlight of Friday's two practice sessions for the
team came when Summerton laid down the second-fastest lap of the first
practice session on his last lap with a 1:16.4940 at 92.619 mph.
Tomorrow's race starts at 12:40 p.m. Eastern time (9:40 a.m. local time),
and will be covered live on indycar.com. VERSUS will air its taped coverage
at 4 p.m. Eastern on Monday.
For more information on the team, see its Web site at
andersenracingteam.com. For more information on its 1-mile road course test track in Palmetto,
Fla., see andersenracepark.com.
Post-qualifying quotes follow:
Jonathan Summerton: "We had way too much oversteer. That's it, basically.
"We made some changes from the first practice session and we overdid it a
bit. We still have the same problem, and we exasperated it a bit more.
"Traffic was OK. We'll go over the data and try to improve for tomorrow."
Mario Romancini: "I was expecting to do better than that. I got caught
behind Junior Strous on what would have been my best lap. Then with the way
the yellows fell, we didn't have time to come in for new tires.
"The street course qualifying format hurt me too. I feel certain that some
cars in the second group will run slower than I did, but they'll start
further up on the grid due to the odd/even rule for the two groups."
The stats so far:
First Practice (Friday, 8 a.m. to 8:45 a.m.):
1. Richard Philippe, 1:16.4256, 92.702 mph, lap 19 of 22
2. Jonathan Summerton, 1:16.4940, 92.619 mph, lap 20 of 20
20. Mario Romancini, 1:18.6657, 90.062 mph, lap 12 of 18
Second Practice (Friday, 12:30 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.):
1. J.R. Hildebrand, 1:15.3923, 93.972 mph, lap 20 of 21
7. Mario Romancini, 1:16.2907, 92.866 mph, lap 13 of 20
16. Jonathan Summerton, 1:16.6680, 92.409 mph, lap 16 of 21
Combined Practice Results:
1. J.R. Hildebrand, 1:15.3923, 93.972 mph, 39 total laps
7. Mario Romancini, 1:16.2907, 92.866 mph, 38 total laps
12. Jonathan Summerton, 1:16.4940, 92.619 mph, 41 total laps.
Qualifying (Saturday, 8:45 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.):
1. J.R. Hildebrand, 1:15.2695, 94.126 mph, lap 8 of 9, automatic new track
record
5. Jonathan Summerton, 1:15.8578, 93.396 mph, lap 7 of 11
14. Mario Romancini, 1:15.9503, 93.282 mph, lap 14 of 15
About Allied Building Products Corp.:
Allied Building Products Corp., headquartered in East Rutherford, N.J., is
one of the largest roofing and siding distributors in the United States.
Founded in 1950 with five employees and two trucks, today it is a $1.8 billion
building material distribution company with over 3,500 employees, more than
200 branches in 30 states, well over one million square feet of office and
warehouse space, and an inventory of approximately 85,000 products, from
residential roofing and siding to doors, windows, waterproofing, manufactured
stone, interior products and commercial roofing systems. For more information
see alliedbuilding.com.
About the Lafarge Group:
The Lafarge Group is the world leader in building materials, with
top-ranking positions in all of its businesses: cement, aggregates and concrete, and
gypsum. With 83,000 employees in 78 countries, the Group posted sales of
19.0 billion Euros in 2008.
Lafarge North America Inc. ("Lafarge North America" or "Lafarge"), a
Lafarge Group company, is the largest diversified supplier of construction
materials in the United States and Canada.
In 2009 and for the fifth year in a row, the Lafarge Group was listed in
the "Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World." With the
world's leading building materials research facility, the Lafarge Group places
innovation at the heart of its priorities, working for sustainable construction
and architectural creativity.
For more information about Lafarge North America, go to lafarge-na.com or
contact Louise Muth, director of external communications, at (703) 480-3707.
About Andersen Racing:
Andersen Racing strives to provide the best and most comprehensive training
possible for future open-wheel superstars while giving its marketing
partners media exposure and hospitality opportunities at some of the most
prestigious events in North America. It provides a unique, four-step program
utilizing multiple entries in four different platforms: karting, Formula BMW
Americas, Star Mazda and Firestone Indy Lights (televised on VERSUS). In 2008 it
fielded multiple entries in 42 races in 18 states and provinces at some of
the best facilities on the continent, including the famed Indianapolis Motor
Speedway.
Andersen Racing won the team championship for 2008 for both the F2000
Championship Series presented by Hoosier Racing Tire and the Star Mazda
Championship presented by Goodyear. Two of its drivers finished first and second in
the F2000 driver point standings, while another was sixth. Three of its Star
Mazda drivers placed third, fifth and sixth in that series' driver
standings. RLR/Andersen Racing finished sixth in the 2008 Firestone Indy Lights team
standings, while one of its drivers placed fifth in that series' driver
point standings.
Andersen Racing's principals, brothers Dan and John Andersen, have
extensive experience in series administration as well as team management. They've
worked with many of today's top open-wheel stars, including several Indy 500
winners.
Andersen Racing is sponsored by Allied Building Products Corp. and Lafarge
North America. It is the official development team of Rahal Letterman
Racing. The team is headquartered at Andersen RacePark, an 18-acre facility in
Palmetto, Fla. that includes a 1-mile road course test track. For more
information see andersenracingteam.com and andersenracepark.com.